Security Council unanimously approves resolution aimed at protecting U.N. staff,  humanitarian workers

Unanimously approved

Edith M. Lederer

Spurred to action by last week’s bombing of the U.N. head- quarters in Baghdad, the Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution aimed at protecting U.N. staff and humanitarian workers after the United States agreed to a compromise.

The resolution had languished since late April because of U.S. opposition, but surged into the spotlight following last week’s attack which killed 23 people, including 19 U.N. staff members, and injured over 160 people.

The resolution emphasizes that deliberate attacks on U.N. and other humanitarian workers in armed conflicts are a war crime and demands that governments take action to prose- cute those who try to harm them.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan said immediately before Tues- day night’s vote that regrettably, in recent years the United Nations had not lived up to its obligation to protect humanitarian workers and U.N. personnel and that attacks against them «have increased alarmingly.»

It is not acceptable, he said, to continue to let these «servants of humanity» be soft targets, and the perpetrators must be sent a message that «impunity for those who commit such unpardonable crimes cannot stand.»

Annan called for unanimity in the council, saying there was «no issue about which I feel more strongly ... than the safety of those brave men and women» serving in danger zones.

Mexico, which sponsored the resolution, announced after the Aug. 19 attack in Baghdad that it would push for a vote. High-level talks began to get the United States to join the consensus and included a telephone conversation between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Ernesto Derbez.

During a final round of intense negotiations Tuesday, Mexico and the other supporters of the resolution agreed to drop a reference to the International Criminal Court, which the United States vehemently opposes, and reached agreement with Washington on defining what constitutes a war crime against humanitarian personnel.

That cleared the way for the 15-0 vote. The United States objected to a statement in the original draft declaring that attacks against humanitarian personnel and peacekeepers are considered a war crime by the International Criminal Court.

The Bush administration opposes the court, which it fears could engage in frivolous prosecutions against American peacekeepers and officials. But the 90 countries that have ratified the 1998 Rome Treaty creating the world’s first permanent war crimes tribunal counter that it contains enough safeguards to prevent any frivolous prosecutions.

The adopted resolution makes no mention of the court but emphasizes «that there are existing prohibitions under interna- tional law» against deliberate attacks against humanitarian or peacekeeping personnel «which in situations of armed conflicts constitute war crimes.»

It also recalls «the need for states to end impunity for such criminal acts.»

Mexico’s U.N. Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser said the resolution’s supporters regret that the court isn’t mentioned. But Richard Dicker, head of the international justice program at Human Rights Watch, said dropping the reference «doesn’t change the practical impact of this resolution.» «The resolution makes prosecution of those accused of attacks on humanitarian aid workers more likely before the International Criminal Court and other courts,» he said.

Mexico and the other co-sponsors of the resolution - France, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria and Syria -  insisted the text must have no ambiguity that attacks on humanitarian personnel constitute a war crime.

Zinser called the resolution «a victory for humanitarian workers.»

U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte welcomed the consensus, saying «the importance of the work done by humanitarian workers and the need to protect them has never been more evident.»

The resolution moves beyond previous measures by focusing on both the prevention of attacks «and on the accountability of those who commit such acts,» he said. But he stressed that it does not create any new international legal obligations.

The resolution strongly condemns all forms of violence against humanitarian workers - including murder, rape, sexual assault, intimidation, armed robbery, abduction, hostage-taking, kidnapping, harassment and illegal arrest and detention.

It urges states to punish such crimes and to pass laws making violence against humanitarian workers a criminal offense.

From Associated Press.